Listening & Speaking practice – Trial version

Hi all,

How is the semester going so far? It seems like everyone is getting busy, letting our blog kind of deserted

I got suggestions and questions from my friends about speaking problems. Here are some of my thoughts. Those are not new, but I believe they worth being repeated.

1. The first key to successful speaking is somehow get a clear and correct pronunciation for each word.

2. Don’t be afraid to speak so slow. What to be afraid of is speak so fast but others could not understand us (you may want to check Dr Le Dung post – Kinh nghiem hoc tieng Anh va nhung sai lam cua toi).

3. Don’t get panic when you don’t know the exact word for whatever you want to talk about, use alternate words/phases. The ultimate purpose of speaking is to communicate, right? So do whatever you can to “transfer” your idea to others. That’s what I do all the time, from the first time I started learning English till now (cuz I’m very very lazy to learn new words and I have very bad memory )

Anyway, today I have a “new” idea to try, let’s see how much you guys like this. This is to practice both listening and speaking. I just know that NPR has an interactive show where listeners call to express their own ideas. Listening to this show will definitely help you with contemporary English speaking. How American speak and express their ideas, how they pronounce and their intonation, and more important, how they put all the words together to express their idea. I believe this show will be very beneficial for anyone who would like to improve their listening and speaking skills.

The show is good, but they do not provide the script for it. Well… actually they did, but we have to pay some money to get the transcript. Here is my idea. Each time I will suggest which show and episode to listen to. You will try to listen and write down the transcript (namely, write down whatever they said). This will be a contribution topic. You might work at your own peace, type the transcript as comments reply to this post, and we will check if you get the correct script or not. As soon as we finish with one episode, we will start a new one.

You don’t have to write down everything. Just try part by part. Please however keep the parts in the right order, so we can easily follow and construct the whole transcript back if needed. In brief, start with the beginning if you are the first to reply, or start with the end of the previous person.

Here is our first topic:

Gore Nobel sparks debate over Climate and Peace

Talk of the Nation, October 16, 2007 · On Friday, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in promoting awareness of global climate change. The honor has sparked a public debate, as some question the characterization of climate change awareness as peace work.

Link

Click on the “Listen” button. You only need Windows Media Player to hear it.

Have fun

- Minh Anh -

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